Friday, February 10, 2017

Looking Back

History gives us a war hero, wheeled out to the fifty yard line for the pre-game coin toss. History gives us a goodhearted painter of puppies. The man who tore down the Berlin Wall loved jelly beans. Tricky Dick opened China and was a bowler. History gives us hindsight, which is powerful. Still, I don't know if there are corrective lenses strong enough to make what is currently happening in the Oval Office appear as anything but insane.
The alternative facts administration took their show on the road this week. Orange Julius spoke to a group of military commanders at Tampa's MacDill Air Force Base, where he promised to support their efforts in spite of the coverage by a "very, very dishonest press." Any problems or confusion with his gerrymandering of policy and procedure is purely the fault of the media and not his late-night Jolt Cola induced executive order binges. This would explain how terrorist attacks have gone unreported. “It’s gotten to a point where it’s not even being reported. And in many cases the very, very dishonest press doesn’t want to report it. They have their reasons, and you understand that,” he said.The "you" to whom he was referring were the military folks in his audience. They know how events like the Bowling Green Massacre can slip through that slippery filter of a twenty-four hour news cycle. Will there really be a time when we look back at the first Trump administration and think, "Boy, I only wish we would have listened to him sooner?" All those bad dudes pouring over our borders and into our nightmares will run into the only man clever enough to build a tall enough wall and cut off enough diplomatic relationships that even James Monroe would blush. Nah. It seems much more likely that once the scorched earth has been re-inhabited by humanoid creatures who stumble on this burned out cinder in search for a likely source of carbon, remnants of our culture will be found by alien archaeologists who will point to this point in our history as a turning point. "Why did they elect such an obvious sociopath?" A dozen years from now may be too late for that kind of historical perspective from anyone currently living on this planet. This great boon to comedians and satirists is ultimately more dangerous than we can imagine because no one is taking him at his word. As he steamrolls along, declaring this and thundering about that, we tend to forget that this is the leader of the free world speaking. Not a cartoon character. Not a reality TV host. This is the President of these United States throwing around his brand of "truth" while the rest of us continue to flinch. Or fall back asleep. Please don't let that happen. Stay awake. Midterm elections are coming. Let's be ready with another flurry of even more effective "voter fraud" in 2018. In the meantime, you can play the fun game of guessing how long it will be until he does something truly impeachable. It's just a matter of time. The time we have left.